LECTURE TWO: SUBSTATION INSTALLATIONS

SUBSTATION CIVIL WORKS

Civil works includes the following items.
o sub-station structures, including gantries and equipment support structures and their
foundations,
o cable trenches along with covers,
o switchyard dressing and levelling,
o site clearance,
o soil investigation,
o drains,
o fencing,
o gravel filling and,
o transformer foundations,
o Any other items, not specifically mentioned here but required for the commissioning of
substation can be deemed to be included in the scope of this Specification.
All civil works must satisfy the General Technical specifications such as detailed below.
Excavation, dewatering, carriage of excavated earth, plain cement concrete (PCC), casting of
reinforced cement concrete (RCC) foundations, super-structures for sub- station structures,
equipment supports, their control cubicles, bus post supports, lighting poles and panels, brick and
stone masonry, cable trenches, pipe trenches with necessary pre cast RCC removable covers,
with lifting facility, cable supports and their embedment in cable trenches with backfilling
complete.

FOUNDATION DESIGN AND PREPARATION

The procedure used for the design of the foundations must be the most critical loading
combination of the steel structure and /or equipment and /or superstructure, and other conditions
which produce the maximum stresses in the foundation or the foundation component, and as per
the relevant Standard Codes of foundation design.
All foundations must rest below virgin ground level and the minimum depth of foundation below
the virgin ground level (minimum one meter below the virgin ground level) must be maintained.

Design considers any sub-soil water pressure that may be encountered.

Necessary protection to the foundation work, if required, has to be provided to take care of any
special requirements for aggressive alkaline soil, black cotton soil or any other type of soil which
is detrimental or harmful to the concrete foundations. Earth pressure for all underground
structures shall be calculated using coefficient of earth pressure at rest, coefficient of active or
passive earth pressure (whichever is applicable).

The following conditions are considered for the design of water tanks, pump houses, channels,
sumps, trenches and other underground concrete structures such as basements etc.

Full water pressure from inside and no earth pressure, ground water pressure and surcharge
pressure from outside (applicable only to structures which are liable to be filled with water or
any other liquid).

Full earth pressure, surcharge pressure and ground water pressure from outside and no water
pressure from inside.

All foundations have to be of reinforced cement concrete.

The type of foundation system depends on the load intensity and soil strata. i.e. isolated footing,
raft or piling. For example,
o Twin Pole foundations can be designed for an additional factor of safety of 1.1 for
normal/ broken wire conditions and for short circuit condition.
o Circuit breaker foundations can be designed for impact loading and must be strictly in
accordance with the Manufacturer„s recommendations.
o Switchyard foundation plinths and building plinths can be minimum 300 mm and 500
mm above finished ground level respectively or as per minimum required safety electrical
clearance stipulated in IE Rule.

Cement
The cement to be used has to be the best quality of its type and must not be more than 3 months
old in stock.
All cement must be sampled and tested in accordance with specified Standards.
Requirement of sulphate resistant cement (SRC) for sub structural works can be decided in
accordance with the some Standards based on the findings of the detailed soil investigation
carried out.

Aggregate
Coarse and fine aggregate shall conform to the requirements specified.
Sampling and testing of aggregates can be in accordance with the relevant Standard.
Fine and coarse aggregates can be obtained from the same source and ensure that material from
the source is known to have a good service record over a long period of time.
Aggregate can be hard and dense and free from earth, clay, loam and soft, clayey, shaley or
decomposed stone, organic matter and other impurities.

Storage of aggregates
Coarse and fine aggregates can be stored on site in bins or on clean, dry, hard surfaces, and be
kept free from all sources of contamination. Aggregates of different gradings can be stored
separately, and no new aggregate shall be mixed with existing stocks until tested, and approved.

Water
Water used for mixing concrete and mortar must be clean, fresh water obtained from an
approved source and free from harmful chemicals, oils, organic matter and other impurities.
Normally potable water may be considered satisfactorily for mixing and curing concrete and
masonry work.

Steel bar reinforcement

All bar reinforcement can be hot rolled steel except where the use of cold worked steel is
specified on the drawings or otherwise approved.
The bars have to be round and free from corrosion, cracks, surface flaws, laminations, rough,
jagged and imperfect edges and other defects.
The bar reinforcement must be new, clean and of the lengths and diameters described on the
Drawings and Schedules. Bars shall be transported and stored so that they remain clean, straight,
undamaged and free from corrosion, rust or scale. Bars of different diameters must be separately
bundled.

CABLE TRENCHES
The cable trenches inside the control room have to be primarily of Brick masonry `supported
with RCC pillars of different sizes say 250*250mm at an interval of 2500mm over 75 mm RCC
base.
 For main power cables separate cable trench should be made.
 Cable trench crossings of roads should be designed accordingly.
 All metal parts inside the trench must be connected to the earthing system.

 Cables from trench to equipments must run in hard conduit pipes.

 A suitable clear gap must be maintained between trench walls and foundations.
Cable tray supports have to be designed and constructed to be a single complete fabrication or
assembly such that every layer of the horizontal cable tray supports are fixed, either bolted or
welded, to a vertical steel support that is embedded in the concrete wall of the cable trough. It is
not be permitted to embed a horizontal support beam directly into the wall of the trough in order
to use the concrete wall as a means of load bearing.
Concrete troughs have to be provided with concrete covers of suitable load bearing strength.

Buried cables
Cables must be laid in neat lines and at suitable levels. Their depth below ground level depends
upon the voltage associated with the cables but in all cases the excavation must provide a clear
trench. Sand filling below, around and above the cables is always required and protection covers
or tiles /bricks have to be placed in position over the sand filling before final backfilling to the
ground level. The line of the cable trenches can be marked with suitable posts.

Equipment at the substation

There are 2 types of system equipment, based on whether or not they react when a fault occurs.
Passive equipment
This category comprises all equipment which, due to its function, must have the capacity to
transport both normal current and short-circuit current.
This equipment includes cables, lines, busbars, disconnecting switches, switches,
transformers, series reactances and capacitors, instrument transformers.
For this equipment, the capacity to withstand a short-circuit without damage is defined in terms
of:
a). Electrodynamic withstand (“peak withstand current”; value of the peak current expressed in
kA), characterizing mechanical resistance to electrodynamic stress.
b). Thermal withstand (“short time withstand current”; rms value expressed in kA for duration
between 0.5 and 3 seconds, with a preferred value of 1 second), characterizing maximum
permissible heat dissipation.

Active equipment
This category comprises the equipment designed to clear short-circuit currents, i.e. circuit-
breakers and fuses.
This property is expressed by the breaking capacity and, if required, the making capacity when a
fault occurs.

Breaking capacity.
This basic characteristic of a fault interrupting device is the maximum current (rms value
expressed in kA) it is capable of breaking under the specific conditions defined by the standards;
in the IEC 62271-100 standard, it refers to the rms value of the AC component of the short-
circuit current. In some other standards, the rms value of the sum of the 2 components (AC and
DC) is specified, in which case, it is the “asymmetrical current”.
The breaking capacity depends on other factors such as:
 Voltage
 R/X ratio of the interrupted circuit
 Power system natural frequency
 Number of breaking operations at maximum current, for example the cycle:
 O - C/O - C/O (O = opening, C = closing)
The breaking capacity is a relatively complicated characteristic to define and it therefore comes
as no surprise that the same device can be assigned different breaking capacities depending on
the standard by which it is defined.

Earthing systems
Earthing and equipment-bonding earth connections require careful consideration, particularly
regarding safety of the LV consumer during the occurrence of a shortcircuit to earth on the MV
system.

Earth electrodes
In general, it is preferable, where physically possible, to separate the electrode provided for
earthing exposed conductive parts of MV equipment from the electrode intended for earthing the
LV neutral conductor. This is commonly practised in rural systems where the LV neutral-
conductor earth electrode is installed at one or two spans of LV distribution line away from the
substation.
In most cases, the limited space available in urban substations precludes this practice, i.e. there is
no possibility of separating a MV electrode sufficiently from a LV electrode to avoid the
transference of (possibly dangerous) voltages to the LV system.

Testing and Commissioning of substation

When required by the authority, commissioning tests must be successfully completed before
authority is given to energize the installation from the power supply system.
Even if no test is required by the authority it is better to do the following verification tests:
 Measurement of earth-electrode resistances.
 Continuity of all equipotential earth-and safety bonding conductors.
 Inspection and functional testing of all MV components.
 Insulation checks of MV equipment.
 Dielectric strength test of transformer oil (and switchgear oil if appropriate), if applicable
 Inspection and testing of the LV installation in the substation.
 Checks on all interlocks (mechanical key and electrical) and on all automatic sequences
 Checks on correct protective-relay operation and settings.
 It is also imperative to check that all equipment is provided, such that any properly
executed operation can be carried out in complete safety. On receipt of the certificate of
conformity (if required):
 Personnel of the power-supply authority will energize the MV equipment and check for
correct operation of the metering.
 The installation contractor is responsible for testing and connection of the LV
installation.
When finally the substation is operational:
 The substation and all equipment belongs to the consumer.
 The power-supply authority has operational control over all MV switchgear in the
substation, e.g. the two incoming load-break switches and the transformer MV switch (or
CB) in the case of a RingMainUnit, together with all associated MV earthing switches.
 The power-supply personnel has unrestricted access to the MV equipment.
 The consumer has independent control of the MV switch (or CB) of the transformer(s)
only, the consumer is responsible for the maintenance of all substation equipment, and
must request the power-supply authority to isolate and earth the switchgear to allow
maintenance work to proceed. The power supplier must issue a signed permit to- work to
the consumers maintenance personnel, together with keys of locked-off isolators, etc. at
which the isolation has been carried out.